


Falling Right

by ThennaryNak



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Finale, probably AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 21:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1793173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThennaryNak/pseuds/ThennaryNak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz has mostly recovered from the events of the season one finale and finds himself ready to move on. He even has someone new to crush on. But he has to figure out if he wants to take another chance again at falling in love with the wrong person again or just keeping it to himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling Right

Recovering from his brain trauma had been like learning to live in his own body again for Fitz. Things were still shaky for him, some gaps in his long term memory and his motor skills were not as refined as they once were. The former was an outright pain, as he had to relearn parts of his field of expertise and there was no way to regain personal memories. The latter was not much of an issue for the most part, until he wanted to tinker with something. Then he had to either rely on mostly Triplett to be his hands, as things were still a bit awkward between him and Jemma.

He never did raise his hopes too high about Jemma thinking of him the same way as he did her. It was still a painful blow and had put an uncomfortable strain on their friendship. And he did honestly still want to be friends with Jemma, even if there was no chance for something more. They both agreed that they had a special connection. It just looked like Fitz guessed wrong that it equated to romance.

With that theory disproved he was working on moving on. And to his surprise he was doing well with it. It was mainly because he did not factor in the chance of finding someone else who he could connect with so quickly. So he fought it the best he could, yet every time he threw up a defense around himself there was just something about Antoine Triplett that made them fall anytime the man smiled. And it seemed like he was always smiling around Fitz. Even his eyes smiled, so sometimes all it took was a look. It was terrible and at the same time wonderful and Fitz could not recall when it really began.

He knew it had to be after Trip gave him the walkie-talkie coin. That was just when he finally decided that they could be friends. Not an easy decision as the last guy he became friends with was a murderous traitor that tried to kill him. Though to be fair the last part did not happen until after Fitz finally began to let Trip in.

While he was recovering from his coma Trip would visit him often when Jemma was busy. As Fitz could not really interact much at first the other man would usually bring a device from his grandfather’s trunk of early SHIELD gear and go over what it was and how it was used. It was nice as Trip was good about making sure he spoke slowly and clearly so Fitz would have the best chance to understand what he was saying. Trip’s voice just sounded comforting. He could have read the telephone book to him and he would have been fine. But he was glad he did not as learning about old spy tech was vastly more interesting. And it had to be sometime around Trip talking about shoes that when their heels were clicked against something would use sonar to find hidden trap doors and the camera pins that he began to fall. By then his brain had recovered enough that he had a good sense of himself again and he can recall daydreaming about falling asleep in Trip’s arms as he went on about old spy gadgets.

His first reaction to that was to assume that he had to have been half-dreaming. But that did not explain the way he missed Trip when the agent had to leave for work or to get some sleep himself. Or how his eyes always tried to catch whatever glimpses they could of him, and how embarrassed he got when Trip’s eyes met his from time to time.

Eventually he had to give in. He had a crush on Antoine Triplett.

It was hardly the first time Fitz had feelings for another man. He was quite comfortable in the fact he was bisexual. He just had no clue how to beat back the paralyzing fear of rejection to make any kind of move or confession to anyone. Well except for confessing his feelings right before he thought he was going to die. Not that it helped any. So even if he was okay with his feelings actually doing anything about them was not exactly something he was prepared to do. It was something he felt he had to do though.

No matter how scared of rejection he was, almost dying without being able to tell the one he loved how he felt was scarier. Plus, he did survive being rejected once, so at least he knew he could indeed take it now.

Getting Trip alone with him was not difficult. In fact Fitz did not even have to plan for it as the agent came by as Fitz was toying with a new invention, an updated version of the ultra-sonic pellets that SHIELD used to use. “Better not break any glass this time around,” Trip warned him with a smile, as he crossed the lab to stand next to the engineer’s chair.

“Couldn’t if I wanted to,” Fitz answered, wanting to return the smile but the memory of a furious Coulson was enough to stop one from forming. “These have to be stuck on mute until Coulson allows us to test them.”

“So what do you need my help with?”

“Well I need to make some very minor adjustments to the sound settings,” Fitz answered as he brought up the schematics for the device on the 3-D imaging display.

Trip gave him a questioning glance but said nothing as he settled himself by the engineer’s side. Fitz knew he had to be wondering why he had insisted that Trip help him for something he could do with voice commands instead. It was the greatest flaw in his plan. Thankfully Trip seemed willing enough to humor him to look over it.

He began giving his instructions to the other agent about the miniscule movements he wanted done to the volume and pitch settings. His heart thundered in his chest throughout it all as he tried to figure out what was the perfect time to make his love confession. The closer he got to the end of his list of changes the more his anxiety rose until all he wanted to do was find a pit somewhere to crawl into.

He was snapped out of it when he suddenly felt a hand clasp his shoulder lightly. Fitz jumped then looked over to where Trip was to confirm that it was just him. The other agent’s face was full of concern as he asked, “Are you going to be okay?”

“Ye-yea, perfectly fine,” he answered, wincing at how his voice wavered. “My mind just wandered for a moment. You know how that is.” He meant to lightly punch Trip in the shoulder good naturedly, but in his nervousness over did it and struck harder than planned.

Trip slightly grimaced for a moment but put on a smile after that. “Okay, I get it. You’re okay.”

“Yes, completely fine and dandy,” Fitz confirmed then set his mind to the task of finishing the sound adjustments.

When they were done Fitz was still feeling frazzled and just let Trip leave. He then spent the next hour or so berating himself for being such a coward. He could only take so much of that though and finally mustered all his courage to go visit Trip.

As he did so he went over all the various ways this would go. Most of them ended up being Trip letting him down easy, because the man was kind like that, but a few he let himself dream of a much happier ending.

It took some looking before he realized that checking the other agent’s quarters would make a lot of sense. Or at least much more than the storage closet he was heading to after checking the hanger, recreation room and the offices.

“Um, hi,” he said lamely after Trip opened the door.

Trip looked at him confused as he returned the greeting then asked, “Do you need help with something else?”

Fitz just nodded his head, trying not to let the fact that Trip had taken off his top so he just had his tank top covering his upper body distract him. As nice as Trip was to look at if Fitz ever wanted a chance of doing anything more than that he knew he had to focus on the task at hand. With a steely resolve he said, “I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

Trip’s eyebrows raised in surprise but he took a step back to let Fitz into his room. “Oh. Well go ahead and make yourself comfortable.”

Fitz held back a defeated laugh as there was no way he was going to be able to be comfortable having this talk. He ended up just standing near the agent’s bed, not wanting to sit in case he felt like he need to bolt off somewhere. Trip meanwhile took a seat at the small desk he had in his room, giving the engineer his full attention.

“I’m sorry, for being weird earlier,” Fitz finally said breaking the silence.

“It’s okay-“

“No, not really,” he managed to blurt out as he began to nervously shuffle back and forth on his feet. “I Just, um-“

Trip had gotten up looking concerned then gestured towards the now empty chair. “Hey, why don’t you take a seat if you’re not feeling too steady.”

“I’m fine,” he snapped back. None of the mentally rehearsed scenarios from before were helping him at this point. He felt like he was drowning all over again.

He had to have been too wrapped up in his own thoughts and looking much more unsteady than he thought, as he failed to notice Trip hurry over to him to place an arm around his shoulders and another on his hip to help keep him upright. He jolted at the touch, his head on instinct turning to face Trip and finally meeting the other man’s gaze. Seeing the worry in Trip’s face made him want to find a rock to crawl under. Instead he quickly turned away and muttered, “I’m not right.”

“Don’t let it get to you. You’re pretty right to me, just the way you are.”

“It’s not that. I, I always pick wrong. First Jemma and now…”

After a moment of silence there was a soft “Oh.” Then after another pause, “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t think you liked Skye that way.”

“No! Not her!”

“Then who?”

Fitz went completely red. He could feel the heat spread down his neck and was certain his head looked like a tomato. He began to try to break away from Fitz’ hold but he just managed to trip over the larger man’s feet.

Trip of course was there to catch him and pulled him in closer to do so. A moment of awkward silence felt like an eternity “Is it me then?” Trip asked softly in his ear. Fitz was surprised to hear a tremble in his usually confident voice. “If it is, you picked right.”

Fitz could swear that his heart skipped several beats upon hearing that. It about near stopped when Trip then followed up with, “I like you, Leo.”

He finally then turned to look at the other man. Their faces were so close he only had to lean in a fraction for them to kiss, but he held back. He had to be certain that this was what he thought it was first. “You really mean that?” he asked, “And it’s not a friend-like but a, well a like-like?”

Trip smiled brightly, “Yea, it’s a like-like.”

There was no holding back then and Fitz closed that gap between their lips for a kiss. Trip kissed back and Fitz just about melted out of pure joy. He completely lost track of time as they stayed like that for what felt like eternity. Their mouths exploring each other’s until breathing started to become too hard and they broke apart.

Instead of any of the lines he had stored away for a moment like this Fitz found himself blurting out, “Why would you think I liked Skye?”

Trip looked at him sheepishly as he shrugged. “I guess I figured your type was exceptionally smart, which I don’t exactly fall into.”

“I prefer nice,” he corrected him.

“Skye’s nice.”

“No, not really. Sure she can be nice at times but then she decides to change the language settings on your files then lock the control to change it with a password from another language. That’s just mean.”

Trip is chuckling as he smiles at the rant and Fitz finds himself smiling right back at him. Until it dawns on him that he had been so wrapped up in planning to confess his feelings to Trip that he never once thought about what would happen beyond that. He must have shown the panic on his face as Trip is then asking him, “What’s wrong?”

As embarrassing as it was Fitz decided to go with honesty and confessed, “I’ve never really dated someone before.”

And since Trip is nice he does not laugh, he instead just smiled before giving Fitz a short gentle kiss. He then moved to sit on his bed, pulling Fitz with him to sit in front of him in between his legs. He wrapped his arms around Fitz’s waist then laid his chin on the other man’s shoulder. “Well I can help you out there. First you can relax. I’m not going anywhere and if I’m not mistaken you don’t need to be somewhere for a good long while. Then it is whatever makes you comfortable. So if you want to fill the hours talking about monkeys feel free to go right ahead. After that maybe we can start figuring out how to go out for a date when you’re part of an illegal underground organization.”

“ _We_ can talk about monkeys,” Fitz corrected as he did begin to relax, enjoying being held like this. “I like hearing you talk.”

“’Fraid I don’t know much about the topic,” Trip confessed, “Except I do remember reading some Curious George when I was little.”

That ended up sparking a conversation that lasted for hours about the depiction of monkeys in the media among various other nonsense topics that seemed so important to discuss at the time.

At some point they shifted positions so Trip could lie on his bed, he was feeling tired of a day spent mostly training with May and Skye. Fitz remained sitting on the bed next to him until he noticed that Trip’s answers became soft mumblings. His eyes had been closed for a while and watching his chest rise and fall Fitz could tell that he had drifted to sleep. He made sure to carefully get up not to wake him. Before he went to leave he gave in to his urge to leave a soft kiss on Trip’s forehead, hoping that it would not wake him. When Trip remained silent and his eyes closed Fitz finally then left, making sure to turn off the light.

A part of him wanted to just stay, but he felt at this point he would be going over boundaries that he still was unsure of. But he felt more confident that he would figure it out. Trip would help him because he was nice like that. And Fitz could finally say that he got the whole falling in love thing right.

**Author's Note:**

> I have debating whether I should actually submit this or just delete it. I love to write but nothing I write measures up to my standards. But I figure that maybe someone will be more forgiving of my attempts at writing than I am and can possibly like this. So I hope you enjoyed this.


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